“Captain Paton, Sir.—Your arrival in the Port of Montreal in charge of the Genova, the pioneer steamer of the Ocean Line, is an event of too much importance to Canada to be allowed to pass without notice.
“To mark the sense which the City Council entertains of this very gratifying token of our Country’s advance, I have been instructed to welcome you with heartfelt congratulations, and to offer you the hospitalities of the City.
“It is now happily beginning to be understood that the highways which nature has provided for access to the interior Countries, are usually the shortest and most practicable, and a single glance at the Map of North America, should convince the most skeptical that the St. Lawrence, with its chain of lakes, is the true channel for the commerce of the Great West. To divert into other outlets the products of the vast granaries which skirt our waters for thousands of miles, has employed the talents, energies and resources of our great rival and neighbour, and not without success.
“The time, however, is fast approaching when the tide of trade and travel will take its proper and destined course. Canada begins to feel its strength and to value its advantages. Its pupillage has not been altogether misspent. Arrived at the maturity which demands self-reliance it is ready to take its place, as a full grown worker, and little doubt need be entertained of the vigour which it is prepared to bring to the task. What the future of Canada will be, the largest minds have not adequately conceived. A knowledge of its unbounded resources, the tithe of which has not been developed—an appreciation of its salubrious climate, and the essentially liberal character of its institutions offer guarantees to the emigrant for the successful pursuit of competency and happiness which no other country can exceed.
“The disturbance of our waters by your gallant vessel is one of those strong pulsations which indicate the high health of Canada. And the time cannot be very distant when this pulse will beat—not once in the month, but with greatly increased power and frequency. Nevertheless, Dear Sir, The Genova and Captain Paton will ever be associated in the history of a note-worthy era; and when the first Steamer of the ocean line is referred to, these names will stir up the most pleasurable reminiscences. Again, then, we hail your advent among us; and we may express the hope that your connexion with this enterprize will be sufficiently prolonged to place you in competition with other rivalries in the same honourable strife.”
The Genova was followed by the Lady Eglinton, 600 tons and 160 horsepower, and the Sarah Sands, 1,200 tons and 150 horsepower. But these boats only made five trips in 1853. The average voyage was fourteen to twenty-two days, home twelve to eighteen days; and 80 shillings freight instead of 60 shillings was charged. In consequence of this total failure on the part of the contractors the government of Canada annulled the contract.
The Crimean war of 1854 now broke out and no doubt the vessels were needed for military transport purposes, so that no new contract was made with the firm. This was the great opportunity which was seized upon by the Allan Company, so that on September 28, 1855, a new contract was entered into with Hugh Allan, of Montreal, to commence in April, 1856, and to give the same time and number of trips as before, but with vessels not less than 350 horsepower. The subsidy was £24,000 sterling per annum, and a penalty of £1,000 for every trip lost was provided for, the deduction of a pro rata amount of the subsidy. The contract was terminable by the contractors at the end of any year by giving six months previous notice. Although the line was not remunerative in its first season, 1856, the contract was fulfilled in the most satisfactory manner, the outward passage being under thirteen days and the home work a little over eleven days. The Montreal Ocean Steamship Company was, therefore, the first “Canadian Atlantic steamship company.”
But it must not be imagined that this was a brand new firm. It had been long connected with the Montreal shipping ventures. The Allan line dates back to 1822. In that year Capt. Alexander Allan sailed to the St. Lawrence from Glasgow in the brig Jean—not one-fiftieth of the tonnage of the liners of today, but the first of the fleet, withal. Captain Alexander was succeeded by his five sons, Captain Bryce commanding some of the earlier ships.
Hugh Allan arrived as a boy in Montreal, sailing from Greenock in Scotland with his father on the brig Favorite. We can imagine the scene of landing from the state of the development of the port at that time. Hugh went into business as a bookkeeper to William Kent & Company, but in 1831 he entered the office of Messrs. William Edmonstone & Company, ship agents and ship builders. Andrew, his brother, joined him later and they both married sisters, daughters of R. John Smith, a wealthy importer. These two brothers represented the Allan line in Montreal, while Glasgow and Liverpool were served by the three other sons. Meanwhile the Allan fleet, especially since 1834, had been growing with such ships as the clippers Glennifer, Abeona, the Corinthian, and their first steamship Sardinian, of which Captain Dutton, a religious-minded but capable seaman, known as “Holy Joe,” was the commander, afterwards becoming the commodore of the fleet.